[Shard Activation: Complete]
[Subject: NIRA — Identity Override Access]
"Admin-class signature detected. Subsystem conflict imminent."
Nira staggered.
The shard embedded in the earth glowed with pulsing red runes, casting glyph-light across her palms. Symbols danced beneath her skin — familiar, yet unclaimed for centuries.
Cael looked at her, barely upright.
"You're... part of it too," he whispered. "Not just a piece they erased. You had root access."
Her voice was low. Shaken. "You didn't erase just memories. You erased me."
[System Input: NIRA_V0 Confirmed]
[Restoring Subclass: Gate Architect]
"Accessing sealed logs… Opening Fracture Files…"
---
Forgotten Footage (Memory Glitch Vision)
A memory spilled across the ruin like a projection made of smoke and regret.
Nira — not as a soldier, not as Cael's companion — but standing before a system console, side by side with him. Her hair bound in black cords, her hands covered in light-code.
They weren't just allies.
They were the co-architects.
Nira: "You handle the structure. I'll build the fail-safes."
Cael: "No one gets to abuse the Vein gates again. Not even us."
Nira: "We lock it together. We burn the key."
Cael: "Promise me… if I ever change…"
Nira: "Then I'll stop you."
Cael: "Even if it means killing me."
Nira: "Especially then."
---
The vision ended. Silence fell.
Cael looked at her, horror and awe colliding in his eyes.
"You're not just someone I forgot… You're the one I trusted to destroy me."
Nira didn't answer.
Because now — she remembered everything.
---
System Instability Alert
[Warning: Two Admin-Class Echoes detected in breach layer]
[Contradictory protocols active: Cael_000 vs Nira_V0]
"Internal collapse approaching.
Recommend immediate purge or merge."
The sky above them fractured, and this time not from outside forces.
The System itself was beginning to panic.
Reality hiccupped. Glitched. Collapsed and restitched.
Two creators.
Two codes.
One world too fragile to hold both.
---
Cael whispered, "What do we do now?"
Nira's eyes were glowing, threads of broken code swirling in her irises.
She said nothing at first.
Then finally…
"We run."
"Not because we're afraid."
"But because if we stay together right now—we'll crash this world."
She turned.
> "You sealed the system to save it."
"Now let's break it—to free it."
---